Flying Dog Brewery's Old Bay seasoned beer is back

Maryland's Flying Dog Brewery is bringing back its Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale. The beer was originally brewed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the iconic seasoning mix made by fellow Maryland company McCormick & Co.

The popularity of the beer stirred up a strong case of Maryland pride—the size of which caught the brewery by surprise, and Flying Dog initially had a difficult time meeting the demand.That forced the brewery to scrap its initial plans for a wide distribution and focus primarily on the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia areas.

Flying Dog Brewery

This time, Flying Dog will be expanding the distribution of Dead Rise to the entire state of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina.

"In 25 years, we've never seen more demand for a craft beer, even before it was released," Chief Marketing Officer Ben Savage said in a statement. "To be able to send the beer to new markets, which have healthy amounts of Maryland pride, is really exciting."

In addition to expanding the Dead Rise brand, Flying Dog also plans to put a new spin on the concept.

With McCormick releasing a new "hot" version of the classic Old Bay seasoning this year, Flying Dog plans to release a "Double Dead Rise" version in July, using the new hotter spice mix. Double Dead Rise will be a brewery-tasting-room-only release.

As with the original release, a portion of the proceeds from Dead Rise sales will once again benefit the True Blue Program, a which advocates on behalf of Chesapeake Bay fisherman and promotes sustainably harvested Maryland blue crabs. Based on last year's release, Flying Dog donated more than $10,000 to the program.